Top 5 Moments in Zillennial Culture that Made Me Who I Am
'95 babies rise up! Plus, a fresh new episode of Book Pong with Kate Kennedy of Be There in Five!
Born in the back half of 1995, I find myself teetering on the edge of two versions of myself: one is a Millennial, one is Gen-Z.
This may sound dramatic (because it is), but as Gen-Z ages up and into the same rooms I’m in, I’ve found myself code-switching a lot lately, tweaking my references and attitude towards certain subjects dependent on whether my conversation partner is two years my junior or senior.
There’s a name for us code-switchers, those of us riding the line between two starkly different generations: Zillennials. You’ve probably heard it before. The exact range of birth years for this cohort can differ between definitions and use cases, but broadly speaking, we’re referring to the folks born right around 1996. Born on the line separating two equally mockable generations, we have, as Hannah Montana would say, the best of both worlds.
If you read last week’s top 5, you may know that I’ve launched a brand new project: Book Pong, an author interview series built around a game of frat house beer pong. The second episode is live today: I interview New York Times Bestselling author and host of the Be There In Five podcast, Kate Kennedy. One thing about Kate? She’s deeply millennial.
I don’t mean this as an insult. It’s part of her brand. Her (our?) generation’s culture is the crux of her podcast and her book, appropriately titled ONE IN A MILLENNIAL. Like most things created with Millennials in mind, Kate’s work is so made for me…90% of the time. There are always a handful of Saved By The Bell references that miss their target audience here. I’m a little too young!
In light of my very Millennial interview with Kate, I’ve been thinking a lot about the unique cultural window in which I was raised. Therefore, I present to you my Zillennial ID card in the form of a top 5 list:
Top 5 Moments in Zillennial Culture that Made Me Who I Am
The retail experience that was Club Libby Lu
If Limited Too had a messy little sister, her name would be Libby Lu. This experience-based retailer was thought up in the year 2000 – and their very first location was at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, or “the good mall” as we called it growing up. So, uh, yeah, we went! The Wikipedia for Club Libby Lu lists its target market as ages 4-12, and it opened and closed between my ages of 5 and 14. Hello, demographic!
Libby Lu’s role in Zillennial culture was that of a birthday party hotspot. At Libby Lu, V.I.P.s (very important princesses) got very glitter-forward makeovers complete with sunglasses and butterfly clips. You could mix up a lil’ something at the “potion station,” which mostly meant choosing a scent for a cheap homemade lotion or lip gloss. I remember one scenario where we all got to put on sparkly spandex outfits and perform a dance in front of the store…which now sounds a little more like punishment than something my parents should be paying for, but right on the heels of mall concert culture, it made me feel famous. At Libby Lu, everything was sparkly and purple and a little bit sticky, and if the Club was still around, maybe these toddlers wouldn’t be overrunning our Sephoras in 2025.
Disney Channel’s High School Musical Era
Like Club Libby Lu, High School Musical was custom-tailored to people like me. The movie came out halfway through my fifth-grade year, right before I needed to decide whether or not to take choir as a middle school elective. All this incoming 6th grader needed to see was Troy and Gabriella kissing at musical callbacks, and Geneva Middle School had its newest Alto 2.
Fergie
Imagine stepping into puberty and being handed the song “My Humps.” Can you picture it? Can you imagine what that strange mix of sexuality and self-empowerment could do to a 10-year-old mind? The very moment I started to get boobs, those boobs got their own theme song. What a power trip! If that weren’t enough, we were granted Fergie’s solo album, Dutchess, less than a month into sixth grade. Between “London Bridge” and “Glamorous,” we were given a soundtrack for every middle school dance to come. At 12 years old with no job, I was confidently getting down on the cafetorium dance floor shouting, “if you ain’t got no money, take your broke ass home.” And then, well…I went home, where I wouldn’t be caught dead listening to this music and instead queued up the parent-approved Kelly Clarkson CD.
The Clique Books
Who wants to follow a group of uber-wealthy pre-teens living in Westchester, New York, who have formed a middle school clique called The Pretty Committee? Okay, now who wants to follow them for TWENTY THREE BOOKS?! There are, incontestably, too many Clique books, but I hoofed it to the back of Barnes and Noble and picked up a copy every time a new book was released. I have never again belonged to a literary fandom of this severity, and I don’t know that I ever could again. That said, there’s a new Clique book dropping next year about The Pretty Committee all grown up…which is complete erasure of the fan-fic I wrote about this exact same topic when I was 17, but okay.
Glee
Put your L’s up, Gleeks, and don’t be shy: there’s no way you could be as embarrassed as me, someone who attended not one but TWO Glee Live shows. Glee did for high school me what High School Musical did for fifth grade me: it made theater kids the main characters in a way that probably gave me more confidence than I deserved to have. I’ve ridden that confidence all the way into a world where I truly believe people care to read my takes on the best Zillennial moments in culture. And that, my friends, is a truth you can take all the way to Regionals.
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PSSST. If you’ve read this far, can you do me a HUGE favor? Can please make sure you subscribe to Book Pong on Youtube and Substack? And if you can throw it five stars, a comment, a like…engaging with the content helps SO much!